Heather, as you can see there is a great deal of detail to be discerned from pictures of Lugers, and a remarkable amount of depth of history and research involved in those small details.
Very large reference volumes have been published about the Luger pistol as a result.
This site has some of the world's experts on these details of Lugers. It's quite a remarkable resource, especially when you observe how freely collectors share this information.
There is always something more to learn about Lugers. I refer to the reference books as "Luger University", but the people collecting them often have gone much deeper than that in their research and understanding.
There are some details that are more obscure than others, and that is one of the real advantages of a website / discussion board like this one.
We get a wide range of new Luger owners asking questions here, and welcome them all.
Your Luger is particularly interesting and collectible. That is not always the case.
Lugers often have a long service life. Your Luger was originally acquired by the German military during the Imperial era. As you suggest in post #7, it was most likely brought into Canada by a returning veteran of either WW-I or WW-II. Since the magazine is later, it's more likely a capture from WW-II, but don't forget that replacement magazines could come from any source at any time.
"2995a" is your Luger's legal serial number. It should have been imported with that number, and any documentation referring to it in the USA should use that number.
The use of Boehler steel barrels on DWM Lugers was discussed here several years ago:
https://luger.gunboards.com/showthre...-STEEL-BARRELS Your Luger would fall toward the end of the 1914 list reported to Jan.
One of our European based researchers ("Vlim") confirms in this thread that a close relationship existed between Boehler and DWM prior to 1928. This would imply that Loewe's DWM would be a Boehler customer for a number of supplies.
In Sturgess extensive study of the Luger on page 1055 (red edition) he indicates that DWM acquired it's barrel steel from Boehler in Vienna, and that this was used (both unmarked and around 1913 marked by batch) by DWM when they were manufacturing Lugers. I'm not sure of Sturgess' source for this detail, but since it includes process information through 1942, it was probably August Weiss.
After two world wars, the records from DWM's Berlin / Charlottenberg operations have not surfaced, and original documentation may no longer exist. After Luger production was transferred to Mauser in Oberndorf in 1930, the manager of pistol production August Weiss brought some documentation (as well as tools, gauges, in process parts and supplies like steel) with him in a train. The inventory of that was found in Oberndorf. I'm not aware of original DWM or BKIW documentation of the acquisition of Boehler steel or it's usage in Lugers.